This blog has been developed to facilitate interactive conversations about the Maynard School District. Individual student or personal matters must still be discussed privately with the appropriate personnel in the schools.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Grace Wilson, One of our outstanding 8th grade students this year,has been invited by the Boston
Youth Symphony Orchestras (BYSO) to play Trombone with Junior Repertory Orchestra (JRO)for the
2013-2014 season! She
has been selected from over 800 of New England’s finest young musicians to be a
part of one of the nation’s most prominent youth orchestras. Congratulations to
Grace for being recognized for her excellence!

With
the 8th grade being taught at the new Maynard High School next year, some concerns
were brought to the administrations attention about the size of the high school
band.I give credit to MHS Principals
Caragianes, Fowler Principal Mela, Fine Arts Lead Teacher Jennifer Lilly, and MHS
Band Teacher Cindy Erickson for working together to brainstorm solutions for
next year and into the future to continue to provide a robust program.

Family Fun and Educational Field Trips

The best part of summer for me are family fun and educational
field trips.Being as frugal as I am, I
also love a bargain.There are 60
museums and cultural venues in our state that arefree on Fridays.You can print up a brochure with all of this
information at: http://highlandstreet.org/2013-HSF-FFF.pdf

Maynard
Farmers’ Market opens June 29

The 2013 Maynard
Community Farmers’ Market begins its season on June 29 and will run Saturdays 9
a.m. - 1 p.m., rain or shine, through October 5 in the Main Street parking lot (near
intersection with Sudbury Street)
at Clock Tower Place
in Maynard.

New vendors at the market this year
include: Wheatless Bliss, cooking in a dedicated gluten-free kitchen and
offering a full range of baked goods and granola, some of which are also
dairy-free or vegan; BlueJay Greenhouses, selling hanging baskets in 10"
and 12" sizes which contain mixed million bells, verbena, scaevola,
and petunia as well as 4- 1/2" pots up to 12"mixed containers of gerbera
daisys, new guinea impatiens, fuchsia, coleus, black & blue salvia, and
potato vine; and CamCo LLC who will offer cedar planter and railing boxes
and vegetable seedlings and take orders for her custom-made PVC greenhouses,
grow tents and row covers. For returning weekly vendors, Applefield Farm,
Brigham Farm, and Nagog Hill Farm have produce and cut flowers; Big Sky Bakery,
Cookie Lady Treats, and Hobson's Homemade are all baked goods vendors; Meat,
poultry, eggs, cheese, and honey will be available from Balance Rock Farm, and
3cBaking sells homemade dog biscuits. Periodic vendors will include
CupKaties, Nashoba Valley Extracts, and Farm Stand Honey as well as two
artisans each week.

The market has weekly musical
entertainment, children's activities, wellness demonstrations, and community
information. The June 29 market will feature the first-ever Market-Season
Kickoff Costume-Parade! Dress yourself, dress your baby, and dress your pooch.
From simple to extravagant, all levels of costume creativity are welcome. For
anyone needing costume help, a costume-creation station hosted by Aimee Ledwell
of Red Shoe Arts, will be available starting at 9am. The parade will begin at
10:30am. For musical entertainment, Dan and Faith play their dream-inspired
original folk music from 9-11am and from 11:15-12:45am, Sam Francis, a folk
fusion singer songwriter with a New England
sentiment will perform. Pathways to Wellness is at the Wellness tent.
Later in the season, look for the July 20 Chef's Day Out event which will
feature a cooking demo by Chris Basile of Quarterdeck Seafoods. For more
information, email: MaynardFarmersMarket@gmail.com For the latest schedule
information, 'Like' Maynard Farmers' Market on Facebook.or follow us on
Twitter.

Important Events and
Reminders

In an effort to
streamline these notes, I will remind the Superintendent’s Notes readers of
important upcoming events with a reference to the blog where more information
can be found.

Friday, June 21, 2013

The Maynard
school community has a lot to be excited about when reflecting on this, the
last day of the school year.If you get
a chance to read what Mr. Cargianes wrote in his Principal’s Notes this week
you can see just how much has been accomplished this year at Maynard High School.
https://sites.google.com/a/maynard.k12.ma.us/maynard-high-school/news-and-events/principal-s-page
I am very proud of all of the success that I see in all of the Maynard
Public Schools.It is extremely gratifying
for me to receive the many emails that I do from parents and guardians
confirming what I already know; Maynard Public Schools provide a superior
education in our region!

Many
parents and guardians have emailed me this week about the wonderful experience
their children have had this year.Some
of these correspondences even commend the entire time spent at one level of our
school system (i.e. elementary, middle, or high school).Most of the time they praise many of our
staff individually including: administrators, teachers, guidance counselors, and
nurses just to name a few. The theme is
often a message of personalization, programs, and growth.The parents appreciate the personalized
experience that can only be found in a small school system, they recognize our
outstanding programs, and they appreciate the growth they have seen in their
children.I even had one person from a mid-west
state email me that they were relocating to the Boston metro area and Maynard was one
community they were considering to move to because of the progressive
educational programs we offer.

While
that is great feedback, we are always striving to improve.We need to refocus our excitement from this
school year and use that optimism to propel us through the school year ahead of
us.The Maynard Leadership Team (MLT)
has a significant amount of proactive work that we are planning over the summer
around safety and security. The staff and administration will receive
professional development with the Maynard Police and Fire Departments before the
school year starts and all of these town agencies will plan some coordinated
events to practice what we learn.We
will also be holding a community forum on the Maynard Public School’s
Bullying Plan in late August for parents and community agencies to provide
input into the development of a revised plan.

Maynard
is a great town and the school community has a lot to be proud of from our past
achievements and excitement for the future prospects.The future looks quite bright to me!

Maynard
Farmers’ Market Opens June 29

The 2013 Maynard
Community Farmers’ Market begins its season on June 29 and will run Saturdays 9
a.m. - 1 p.m., rain or shine, through October 5 in the Main Street parking lot (near
intersection with Sudbury Street)
at Clock Tower Place
in Maynard.

New vendors at the market this year
include: Wheatless Bliss, cooking in a dedicated gluten-free kitchen and
offering full range of baked goods and granola, some of which are also
dairy-free or vegan; BlueJay Greenhouses, selling hanging baskets in 10"
and 12" sizes which contain mixed million bells, verbena, scaevola,
and petunia as well as 4- 1/2" pots up to 12"mixed containers of
gerbera daisys, new guinea impatiens, fuchsia, coleus, black & blue salvia,
and potato vine; and CamCo LLC who will offer cedar planter and railing
boxes and vegetable seedlings and take orders for her custom-made PVC
greenhouses, grow tents and row covers. For returning weekly vendors,
Applefield Farm, Brigham Farm, and Nagog Hill Farm have produce and cut
flowers; Big Sky Bakery, Cookie Lady Treats, and Hobson's Homemade are all
baked goods vendors; Meat, poultry, eggs, cheese, and honey will be available
from Balance Rock Farm, and 3cBaking sells homemade dog biscuits.
Periodic vendors will include CupKaties, Nashoba Valley Extracts, and Farm
Stand Honey as well as two artisans each week.

The market has weekly musical
entertainment, children's activities, wellness demonstrations, and community
information. The June 29 market will feature the first-ever Market-Season
Kickoff Costume-Parade! Dress yourself, dress your baby, and dress your pooch.
From simple to extravagant, all levels of costume creativity are welcome. For
anyone needing costume help, a costume-creation station hosted by Aimee Ledwell
of Red Shoe Arts, will be available starting at 9am. The parade will begin at
10:30am. For musical entertainment, Dan and Faith play their dream-inspired
original folk music from 9-11am and from 11:15-12:45am, Sam Francis, a folk
fusion singer songwriter with a New England
sentiment will perform. Pathways to Wellness is at the Wellness tent.
Later in the season, look for the July 20 Chef's Day Out event which will
feature a cooking demo by Chris Basile of Quarterdeck Seafoods. For more
information, email: MaynardFarmersMarket@gmail.com For the latest schedule
information, 'Like' Maynard Farmers' Market on Facebook.or follow us on
Twitter.

Holly Family Fundraiser

A member of our
school community lost everything in a house fire on May 10, 2013. Come
for a night of food, fun, and friendship to benefit Deb Holly. The event
will be held on June 21, 2013 from 7PM to Midnight at the Maynard Lodge of
Elks. For more information and tickets contact:

Friday, June 14, 2013

I cannot express
how proud I am of the class of 2013.They have been outstanding students and have left a legacy of improved achievement.Last year, I was very proud of the fact that
the state data on college attendance rates had Maynard higher than two of the
four surrounding high schools in our immediate region.This year, our college attendance rate has
increased!

Of course, the
class of 2013 should also be proud of themselves as many of them got accepted
into their first choice colleges and the programs of their choice.If you are interested in seeing where our
students were accepted, go to this link:

The School
Committee is working closely with the administration to review all policies and
protocols to make our schools as safe and caring as we possibly can.We will be having agenda items on each school
committee agenda until this is thoroughly defined and communicated.

As we prepare for
more opportunities to dialog about this issue, I may be sending some updates
through these notes.Please keep an eye
out this summer for this information as we are sincerely looking for input from
all constituents on the issue of bullying.

Have a safe summer
starting with the Fourth of July

The summer months
are a great time for rest and rejuvenation.Unfortunately, some holidays have inherent dangers built into the
festivities.The next big holiday is the
Fourth of July.Did you know that the
tip of a sparkler can be as hot as 1200 degrees?This and other facts in regard to commercial
fireworks and safety are on the attached link titled Fireworks Safety Tips 2013:

Friday, June 7, 2013

The Maynard Leadership Team (MLT), School Committee Chair Amy
Rebecca Gay, and School Committee Member Ken Estabrook met this week to focus our
energies around the bullying concern in our community.We began identifying what policies, programs
and practices are working well and where we might need to improve.We developed a three-pronged approach to
address this concern that includes examining: 1. Policies and Protocols, 2. Resources,
and 3. Training and Awareness. We will continue to have this as an important
agenda item at upcoming school committee meetings and are looking to assemble a
Bullying Community Forum to solicit input from various stakeholders.